It has been awhile. I’ve been traveling around, visiting some friends. Finally get a chance to sit home and enjoy some Cardinals baseball. Listening to the current game as I type, and (don’t tell anyone, but) the Cardinals are leading.

The biggest thing I’ve read lately is the potential rumor of Scott Rolen being traded to the Dodgers. Personally, that has me intrigued as to who the Dodgers would give us for a guy that’s batting .210 and has seemingly lost his power threat. It might be a good move, but I thought Rolen had a no-trade clause, and seeing as he seems to enjoy playing so close to home, I don’t know if he’d waive it. Plus, suddenly my Scott Rolen Cardinals jersey would be out of date. So they can’t trade him!

The Cardinals offense seems to be turning it around these days too, now if only we could keep the other team from scoring so many runs, maybe we’d be higher than last place. Albert Pujols is starting to turn it around. The Cardinals team still has tons of potential offense if certain players *cough* Rolen *cough* Edmonds *cough* start getting back to their usual performance this team can take the Central and get back into the race, though I doubt we can keep up with Milwaukee.

The Cards are in a tough spot as a team though, we’ve got veterans who may or may not be able to rebound and we’ve got a few above average guys in the minor leagues who aren’t ready to play yet. With an owner who seems to delight in profits rather than a winning team, I doubt we’ll go spend the money to fill the gaps, so it could be a tough 2-3 years for Cardinals fans coming up. I really hope it’s not.

Ooh, we just tacked another run on. Let’s go Adam! Get the much needed fantasy performance for my last place team.

I’ve been busy lately so I haven’t had a chance to post. Today was Josh Hancock’s memorial service. Some are making a big deal out of the fact that the Cardinals haven’t won since Hancock’s death, but really. The Cardinals ****** before Hancock died, they aren’t going to magically get better. Granted we did get dominated by Milwaukee, but Milwaukee is a good team (and my pick to win the NL Central this year) so losing to them should be expected, right?

The Yankees are looking more like the Yankees this week, but playing Texas will do that to a team. Tough break for Phil Hughes, no hitter going and you have to come out because you tweaked your hamstring. Lots of hamstring injuries so far this season.

Chris Carpenter is expected back next week. Here’s hoping he’s 100% and can help bring some stability to the rotation.

If you’ve been paying any attention to baseball today, you should know that Josh Hancock was killed in a car accident Sunday morning. I got to work today and was ready to listen to the Cards game and ran across the many articles about it. I’m just blown away, and in a fog. I’m going through the exactly same symptoms I did five years ago when we lost Darryl Kile. Just utter disbelief.

I’d probably list Hancock in the top-5 favorite active Cardinals players. He was a quiet guy who came in and got the job done. I like that. He and I also share April 11th as a birthday. So, he got points for that one. Needless to say, Josh will be missed.

Alex Rodriguez leaving NY? I was also reading today (one advantage of your store closing is you have lots of time to surf the internet) that he might opt out of his contract in New York. While I could certainly understand a possible desire to leave New York, a desire A-Rod says he doesn’t have, Boras would be a fool to have him opt out of his contract. Nobody has signed for anywhere near the money he’s played for since he signed that contract. He won’t get a raise, now I can see him working an extension with NY to keep his pay rate, or near that. I guess this story will unfold as the season goes on, but if I’m A-Rod, I stay in New York. I’ve been wrong before, but I don’t see the advantages to leaving.

Good news for Cards fans. Chris Carpenter played some long toss and Mark Mulder has been in St. Louis visiting the team. Having Carp back in the rotation will make me feel much more comfortable. I just hope that we don’t have to worry about him messing up his shoulder again, or it inflaming again. If there was a chance, I’d say give him the surgery and I’ll take him back in September and hopefully we still have a shot at the playoffs at this point.

Juan Encarnacion is doing rehab starts. Got his first hit tonight with an RBI ground out.

Mulder was playing longtoss with Carp. I’m not sold on Mulder being the savior, but even if he comes back like he’s pitched the past two years for the Cards, I’ll be thrilled. He’s looking like an August return to the majors according to what I’ve read. I will be glad to have him back.

Scott Rolen’s also starting to hit, his BA is up 90 points in the last four days! Wooo!!!

Mother nature did not interfere tonight as I finally got a chance to attend my first Durham Bulls game of the season. Great weather for baseball today too, it’s just disappointing that the Bulls decided to take the night off for the first 8 innings. They lost 12-6 to Columbus in regulation. It got so bad that C Josh Johnson pitched the top of the 9th for Durham. Given the way he pitched, why couldn’t he have started? In one inning he allowed two hits (one down the left field line, the other an infield hit to the short stop) and struck out one guy swinging.

Former Tampa Bay Ray Seth McClung also pitched. He was bringing the heat too. He was good if you take away the 3 run jack he allowed Manny Alexander over the "Blue Monster."

The Bulls tried to rally in the bottom of the 9th for all maybe 150-200 fans in the ballpark at that point. They managed to plate three runs before a long fly ball to deep center field was caught for out #3. Just a few yards short of a home run.

The Bulls illustrated the name of my MLBlog tonight, they were trying. I’m debating about going tomorrow afternoon to the game. We’ll see.

So I’m going to be attempting to do a baseball blog. Other sports might infiltrate from time to time, but my love of the Cardinals will hopefully keep this going.

When is Juan coming back? The Cardinals offense is just pitiful so far this year, much like that of my fantasy baseball team (wait, I think the Cards are better…). They’ve been struggling to win, and haven’t won a low scoring game yet (hadn’t won while allowing 2 runs or less until Friday). This has many, many of my Cardinal fan brethren clamoring for the return of Juan Encarnacion who begins his rehab assignments very, very soon.

Is Juan Encarnacion the answer? Is the man, that many a Cardinals fan moaned and complained about in 2006, the answer to everyone’s prayers? Probably not. Encarnacion is a solid player, and he pretty much carried the Cardinals offense through the Pujols-less stretch last season. There is a good possibility that he could be the guy once he returns. He’ll definitely be an improvement over Preston Wilson out there.

Don’t get me wrong, I was someone who advocated the re-signing of Preston Wilson over the winter, but he is much better coming off the bench than being an everyday player. The fact that he is a strikeout machine doesn’t help much either when you are trying to get better.

Encarnacion has never been an outstanding player, and he’s very correctly charged with being a bit lazy on defense. However, with Encarnacion you know exactly what you’ll get every year with him. You get a player who will hit 15-20 homers, bat around .280. You get consistent performance. That’s what the Cardinals need, some consistency. Wait, no. They need to get consistently better.

Scott Rolen goes 5-for-6. How about my boy Scott taking it to the Cubs on Sunday night. What a sweet performance for him. Hopefully this signals that he’s ready to return to the player he was in 2004, but I’ll settle for last year’s performance too.